The Balboa Park Committee heard a mouthful, both pro and con, at a Saturday workshop on plans to clear cars from the center of the park as proposed by Qualcomm co-founder Irwin Jacobs.

Everyone endorsed Jacobs’ proposal, unveiled last year, to remove the 67 parking spaces in the Plaza de Panama outside the San Diego Museum of Art and turn the roughly 2-acre space into a pedestrian-only zone for casual strolling and special events.

But no one liked the price to be paid for eliminating cars in the space — build a bypass from the Cabrillo Bridge-Laurel Street entrance and route traffic to the Alcazar Garden parking lot and on to an 800-space garage south of the Spreckels Organ Pavilion.

“I urge you not to waste any more time and money on this project,” said Diane Coombs, a longtime activist on many park and city planning efforts. “It should never happen.”

Jacobs, who was not present, had proposed a $35 million plan, partially funded by donations and the rest by a parking-revenue bond to pay for the garage and an intrapark shuttle system.

The three-hour session had originally been intended as a time for the public to help determine how the plaza should be redesigned to accommodate only pedestrians and special events once cars are gone.

But the entire time was taken up by presentation of the Jacobs’ plan and public reaction and comment.

Mark Johnson, hired by Jacobs from the Civitas land-planning and landscape architectural firm in Denver, defended the plan but said afterward that he will develop some alternatives as suggested by the public. He also plans to prepare some plaza design ideas that the public can review at a future session.

“We’d like to carefully evaluate it and think of some alternatives,” Johnson said, promising to return the committee next month.

Suggestions from the 28 speakers and written comments included closing the bridge entirely to traffic and expanding the park’s existing tram service to transport visitors from the west.

Other speakers said if there is to be a parking garage, it should be located east of Park Boulevard at Inspiration Point. Some argued that a facility south of the organ pavilion, which would hold more cars than the present parking lot, would likely attract more cars and congestion. Others wanted the car plan to go further and eliminate parking from Pan American Plaza, site of extensive gardens and fountains at the 1935-36 California Pacific International Exposition.

However, no one liked charging for parking in the garage, saying the park should be one place in San Diego where the public can park for free. Paid parking would presumably be needed to fund the garage and expanded shuttles.

Many of the speakers endorsed an alternative advocated by the Save Our Heritage Organisation that would involve continuing traffic across the bridge but routed along the southwest edge of the plaza in front of the House of Charm, home to the Mingei International Museum. Parking in the plaza would disappear and, in a second phase, traffic might be banned altogether.